“Such language,” Mrs. Apusenja said. “Just as I would expect from sluts.”

“Hey, watch who you’re calling a slut,” Lula said. “You’re starting to get on my nerves.”

“Get off my porch,” Mrs. Apusenja said. And she shoved Lula.

“Hunh,” Lula said. And she gave Mrs. Apusenja a shot to the shoulder that rocked her back on her heels.

“Disrespectful whore,” Mrs. Apusenja said to Lula. And she slapped her.

This was where I took two steps back.

Lula grabbed Mrs. Apusenja by the hair and the two of them stumbled off the porch to the small front yard. There was a lot of bitch slapping and name calling and hair pulling. Nonnie was shouting for them to stop and I had my stun gun in my hand just in case it looked like Lula was going to lose.

An old lady tottered out of the house next door and turned her garden hose on Lula and Mrs. Apusenja. Lula and Mrs. Apusenja broke apart sputtering. Mrs. Apusenja turned tail and scuttled into her house, her soaked sari leaving a trail of water behind her that looked like slug slime.

The old lady shut the water off at the spigot on her front porch. “That was fun,” she said. And she disappeared into her house.

Lula squished to the car and climbed in. “I could have taken her if I’d had more time,” Lula said.

I dropped Lula off at the office and drove on autopilot to Hamilton and eased into the stream of traffic. Hamilton is full of lights and small businesses. It’s a road that leads to everything and everywhere and at this time of the day it was clogged with cars going nowhere. I turned from Hamilton, cut through a couple side streets, and swung into my apartment building lot. I parked and looked up at my building and realized I’d driven myself to the wrong place. I wasn’t living here these days. I was living with Morelli. I thunked my head on the steering wheel. “Stupid, stupid, stupid.”

I was on the third thunk when the passenger side door swung open and Ranger took the seat next to me. “You should be careful,” Ranger said. “You’ll shake something loose in there.”

“I didn’t see you in the lot when I pulled in,” I said. “Were you waiting for me to come home?”

“I followed you, babe. I picked you up a block from the office. You should check your mirrors once in a while. Could have been a bad guy on your tail.”

“And you’re a good guy?”

Ranger smiled. “Are you parked here for any special reason? I thought you moved in with Morelli.”

“Navigation error. My mind wasn’t on my driving.”

“Do you want to tell me about it?”

“The shooting?”

“Yeah,” Ranger said. “And anything else I should know about.”

I told him about the shooting and then I told him about the flowers and the photos.

“I could keep you safer than Morelli,” Ranger said.